


His Old Girl

by zinjadu



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-27
Updated: 2012-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 16:22:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/445099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinjadu/pseuds/zinjadu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The truest ship in the quadrant.  Facts.  Written a while ago, rehosting here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Old Girl

After all these years, she was still beautiful, his ship. He remembered when he was first made a captain and they told him he would be given command of The Enterprise, and he was more excited about the post than the ship. Then he saw her. She was still in space dock, but he could tell by the graceful lines and powerful engines she was a ship made to move. She looked so sad in dock. She should be free, free to roam the stars.

Someone had to remind him to breathe as they approached the shuttle landing bay. He remembered walking every inch of his ship, of getting to know her like no one else could. Scotty might know the wires, but he'd know the soul of this ship. Always would.

And the day he had to destroy her it broke his heart.

She had given everything she could, and it still wasn't enough. He remembered an old story, about a boy who had been forced to put down a rabid dog he had loved, and Jim Kirk knew what that little boy felt. How could you ever love something as much the very thing that meant home, the thing that had saved your life in a million different ways, the thing that tried to kill you a couple of times too.

They had a history, him and his ship, most of it good, some of it bad, but he wouldn't trade a second of it for anything.

In his heart he raised a glass and said a toast to the proud ship that had been his home for all too short a time, and perhaps even the love of his life, for all that she was breaking his heart now. Now that she just didn't have anything left to give. Maybe it was his fault, asking too much, never thinking that he needed to take better care of the old girl, but it was too late to fix anything.

And then she was gone in a blaze of soundless glory.


End file.
